St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1887-06-25
DEALING IN DAKOTA DIRT.
The Only Value Much Territorial Land
Has is the Power Of the Owner
to Dispose Of It.
Much Land Owned by ns--How They
are Convinced of the Worth of
Dakota Land.
A Young Man Who Paid $1,000 for
Section Where it Was Selling for
Much Less.
Money Invested in Improved Property
in Many Cases Paying a Poor Rate
of Interest.
speclal Correspondence of the Globe.

Spec1aI Correspondence of the Globe.
MANDAN, OAK, June 23.-An elderly
man, who looked as though The storms
of life had not at any time beaten upon
him with undue severity, sat easily
in chair in the Office of Mandan real
estate agent. He had just purchased a
section of Dakota land, had paid the
cash for it, and had taken his warran tee
deed. mot long after I get back to
Chicago said he, for he was on very
easy terms with the agent, zone man
has Smith got?' Whereupon my ac-
quaintance will reply, with an assur-
ance in his tone begotten of knowledge:
why, Smith owns piles of Dakota lands
That statement will, let us hope,
set at rest, once and forver, all re-
marks and insinuatiOnS to the effect
that Smith has got nothing" Where
upon the Chicago man laughed heartily
at his little joke, and his hearers
laughed also. Dakota lands are an I'M
known quantity, even in Dakota, where
they should be known best. Much of
the land in this territory which is held
in fee simple is of no use whatever to
the owner for farming purposes. ES-
pecially is this the case in the northern
part of the territory, where the North
ern Pacific land grant comes and where
land can be bought for money without
the formality of negotiating with
William Andrew Jackson Sparks, of
the United States land department.
The only value these land possess is in
the power of the owners 10 sell them.
THE RAINS OF HEAVEN
q N ,,pon thapl with lllp itu Tho
sun of heaven shines upon them with
an even greater regularity, but their
owner is a thousand miles away, and
the only use they are put to rs the, to
him, profitlesS one of having his neigh
bors' stock Craze upon them. There is
a good deal of land in this world, be it
on which nothing grows
that is worth a good deal more TO the,
owner than he could getfor it if he were
to sell. | havein mind piece of land,
by feet, in. the old settled
East, of which it is impossible to pro-
cure complete abstract, a fire having
years ago burned the records. This
particular piece of property is in a worse
fix than the city lots that lie imme-
diately around it, for by varied
means their title has been pretty
well Strengthened out, but this
town hot is still of great
value to the man who is the reputed
owner and who has by far the best title
to it. He has possession; a fine hotel is
upon it, and so long as he or his heirs
hold possession, it is all right. The in
come is as great as if the title were per-
feet. Guests of a hotel are far more
particular to find out what are the ae-
commodationS and what kind of table
is set than to look up the title at the
court house. Unlike the owner of this
piece of property, the Eastern owner of
Dakota real estate must place a value
on his land of only so much as he could
get for it of some buyer. Unimproved
lands in this territory have no rental
value unless they happen to be hay
lands located in some fertile river-bot-
tom. Quite good deal of land herea-
bouts is
OWNED BY ALIENS,
as we are rather fond of calling them.
1t is comparatively easy thing for d
real estate agent to con
vince wealthy foreigner that he should
purchase a section or two of land before
returning home to the old country. An
whose father made a for
tune while carrying on the duties of a
tallOw chandler, and who by chance
the Yellowstone park, was roped in very
nicely short time ago by a man who
had 640 acres OF land that he desired to
part with for hard cash. The land is as
pretty piece as can be found lying in
the territory. A fine vein of Ignite
coal crops out at one corner of the sec
ton, clear stream of water flows
by in the hottest weather OF
the summer and the coolest weather Of
the winter. The land slopes gently to
the south the soil is Of The richest quality.
The young man whose hauptS when at
home were within a few miles of Biz
WarwiekShire, England,
knew well enough when he cIapped his
eyes on this desirable chip of Dakota
that such piece of land a mile square
would be worth a big fortune near the
buStling town Of Birmingham, and that
in almost any part of England it would
be worth at least S2i1, 600. When the
saw it he coveted it. He
owned 10 land in England; his father
only owned little piece or two. How
nice it would be, he thought, when
had played oab still worse than
she has now, to come to this new terri
tory in this new country and take up
his permanent abode. How romantic
to go out and shoot moose, deer and an
telope for his own table. But how much
did the owner want for this delightful
Merely 5000. Did the man
mean ST, 400 an acre? That would indeed
be rather a high price. NO. lie could
notmean that. The owner only wanted
$40 AN ACRE.
Of course, the scion of the tailoW
house would not hesitate IL
on such bargain as this. As
a matter of fact the price was a high
one, when the price of land in tho I'M
mediate vicinity was taken into account.
Some of the money invested in inn
proved property in Dakota towns is not
paying good rate of interest on the
money invested. There are few if any
towns i'll the territory where buildings
cannot be found that cost thousands of
dollars, which, instead of renting for
drain upon their owners for
taxes, repairs and insurance. But, on
the other hand, most of the property
pays well where the Improvements
were made with an eye to the popu-
tar demand and not to crafty a cranky
notion. There are dwellings in this
town that pay from IL to Is per cent. OH
first cost, besides taxes and insurance.
Store buildings of brick and stone net
10 to IL per cent. after the taxes and in
are paid, and after an adequate
amount is written off for deprecia-
ton. The owner of real estate in any
fertile county of the territory or in any
town or village that is surrounded by
good grazing lands, must not get tired
Of paying taxes, though sometimes they
may seem to be rather high. There is a
future for their property-not perhaps
so great future as they dreamed of
when under the spell of an active real
estate agent. but still future.